Li Yundi

Pianist's New Post

China's piano prodigy Li Yundi was hired as deputy director of the newly-founded Piano Research Institute at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, his alma mater. Li will set up a studio so that piano students can learn from him face to face. Li, 30, was crowned the champion of the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, the youngest and first Chinese winner in the history of the competition.

South African Professor Phillip Valentine Tobias

Renowned Scholar Dies

South African Professor Phillip Valentine Tobias, a scholar in the fields of anatomy, palaeo-anthropology and zoology, internationally renowned for his expertise on the origins of humans, and an outspoken anti-apartheid academic, died at 86. Professor Tobias successfully campaigned for the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa to be proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.